A little sewing, knitting, bird watching.

Over the last few days I've been doing a little of everything... and at times doing nothing. over my life I have come to realise the importance of being busy but also of slowing down and at times stopping. Recently I've been enjoying spending time sitting in the garden. Usually I take some knitting or sewing with me but sometimes I just like to sit, sometimes close my eyes and to feel the warmth of the sun on my skin, to listen to the birds and the gentle hum of the bees, to breathe in and smell the scent from the roses. Due to the fabulous weather we have had in London over the last few weeks I have enjoyed these simple pleasures often. I'm due to go back to work at the beginning of June and between now and then I need to set up some systems to ensure I allow myself these pleasures. It is unfortunately so easy to let work take over time in your life that it has no right to. My other pleasure over my sick leave has been having time to work on my projects and finish some of them.

So what have I been working on recently? I've been playing with the design of the Japanese quilt. I have plotted out on squared paper how I want it to look and it will finish at 60 x 60 inches.  I started with the sashiko block I had already sewn and gave it a border. I need to press this block.

From here I did a lot of measuring (and scratching of my head) to decide how to place the blocks from the panels, the sashiko I plan to do and also considered whether to make some fan blocks to include in the quilt. The ideas just kept on jumping into my brain and so I made a cup of tea and retired to the garden to quieten my over excited brain. Over a cup of tea I remembered I needed to buy some more sashiko fabric. That was easy and it will be delivered on Tuesday. I had decided to make the quilt as a medallion quilt with the sashiko block as the medallion in the middle. The next round will include some of the Japanese panel blocks and sashiko blocks. I have already chosen the patterns I will use. I made detailed notes of the ideas in my quilters planning notebook. Unfortunately if I don't write it out or do a sketch of my ideas I will forget them and have to start all over a again.

I haven't done any knitting for a while so I cast on the second sleeve of my cardigan and made a start. A slow start I have to say but this will be quick to do. I also got out all the crocheted squares I hadn't used in the blanket I made recently. I had 102 squares so I sorted them into a 10 by 10 square and fasten each row together in the order I wanted. This time I am joining the squares with yellow yarn. 4 rows attached the one way so far. I hope to finish this by the end of the week.

On Friday John and I went bird watching at Barnes Wetland centre, The centre is well used and there was a primary school group in enjoying pond dipping and other activities. As we walked to the entrance past the Peter Scott statue I spotted a swan settled nearby.

I only had my phone with me so I knew any photos I took would be of the flowers. I loved the poppies in the slate garden. 

Walking between hides there were several water iris flowering.

I think this flower is a southern marsh orchid.

On the lagoons several water lilies were almost open.

At the feeders for the small birds a squirrel was perched on the roof.

Whilst in the water nearby  a mother coot and chick were busy.

My favourite photos of the day were of the Canada goose family.

It was a good birdwatching trip with us spotting 43 different species of birds. I really enjoyed this outing as I hadn't been to Barnes for several months.

Today (Monday) I want to do some more quilting on the dinosaur quilt. This is going rather slowly as it is a big and heavy quilt.

Take care

Lyndsey